Paul Smith: We Are An Island - Albemarle Street, London

Paul Smith is pleased to debut a new series of photographic work by London-based artist Walter Hugo at No.9 Albemarle Street. The exhibition, titled We Are An Island opens to the public on 16th October to coincide with the Frieze Art Fair London.​The show will bring together two major series of works that have never before been shown in their entirety. The exhibition space will host Reflecting the Bright Lights, a collection of portraits of inspirational and creative peers from the worlds of performance, art and fashion captured in silver nitrate on glass sheets. This will be the first time that all 50 completed portraits will be shown together and the series will be available for purchase – as a complete set only. With luminaries like Eddie Redmayne, Alice Dellal, Carson McColl,Polly Stenham, Maia Norman, and Jaime Winston captured by Hugo’s 1870’s lens, Reflecting the Bright Lights creates a portrait of today’s cultural pioneers.

The Nature of Interdependence – Hugo’s 10-piece series of giant seascapes depicting the shores of Britain - will be on view upstairs at No.9 Albemarle Street. Not only is each piece handmade with salt distilled from sea water collected from the stretch of ocean in the pictured image but these are the largest salt prints ever to have been made. Echoing themes of reincarnation and the relationship with water and man, the series beautifully captures

England’s unique shoreline. Five editions of each image have been produced, and each has unique qualities created by the production process.

During the exhibition, there will be the chance for customers to commission a truly unique portrait. Hugo will build a giant room-sized camera, with a brass lens dating from the 1870s, which will reside in No.9 Albemarle Street for the duration of the exhibition. Hugo has used the same camera before to shoot Reflecting The Bright Lights, a collection of 50 glass-plate portraits of inspiring creative talents.

At No.9 Albemarle Street he will shoot seven new commissions of portraits shot directly onto glass. The process has an extended exposure, which engages deeper reflections of each individual. The developing chemicals carefully applied on site bring the portrait to life immediately. With this process, there are no negatives; the images, therefore, are complete one-offs.

Paul Smith and Walter Hugo were introduced to each other in April 2013 and they have been working together since. Their shared passion for photography was the catalyst for this exhibition at No.9 Albemarle Street.

We Are An Island will be on show at No.9 Albemarle Street from 16th October to 10th November 2013.